Cal Performances—the performing arts presenter of the University of California, Berkeley—presents, produces, and commissions renowned and emerging artists of the highest caliber. Serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area, the organization aims, through ambitious programming, to cultivate future audiences for the arts and to connect the most innovative and accomplished artists in the world with the intellectual capital of UC Berkeley. Cal Performances reaches nearly 120,000 people each year through its artistic programming and education and community outreach efforts.

The organization presents up to 100 performances every season in a variety of genres including classical and early music; contemporary, jazz, and pop music; dance and musical traditions from around the world; and classical and contemporary theater.

Through the thematic programming of its annual Illuminations series, Cal Performances presents performances and related online and in-person programs that connect artists, creators, scholars, and activists with thinkers from the UC Berkeley community to shed light on pressing topics of the day. Past Illuminations themes were “Fact or Fiction” and “Music and the Mind.” The 2021–22 season explores issues of “Place and Displacement.” Artists and speakers featured in this year’s series use their work to explore the fraught and often devastating effects of migration, exile, dislocation, and separation, on both local and international scales.

Beyond Illuminations, Cal Performances hosts a number of additional education programs that have been recognized nationally as model engagement strategies for grades K–12 and college campus communities. These programs include SchoolTime performances for K–12 students; AileyCamp, a full scholarship summer program that uses dance as a vehicle for developing self-esteem, creative expression, and critical thinking in adolescents; workshops for teachers; artist and master-teaching visits to classrooms and schools; artist talks and discussions; extended artistic residencies; and artist master classes. Approximately 20,000 people have taken advantage of these programs each season.

As an integral part of a world-class public university, Cal Performances supports the thriving extra-curricular life on the UC Berkeley campus. It oversees Student Musical Activities, comprised of the University of California Marching Band, UC Jazz Ensembles, UC Choral Ensembles, and BareStage Productions. As a service to the campus, Cal Performances’ operations department manages events in five performance venues, including the production of over 40 graduation ceremonies each academic year.